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Qatar to Pay Back $5 Million in Recruitment Fees for World Cup Workers

Qatar says it will pay back $5 million in recruitment fees paid by 30,000 migrant workers who are building stadiums in preparation for the World Cup in 2022.

By the end of this month the government of Qatar will reimburse 5,500 South Asian migrant workers in Qatar for the fees they paid middlemen to get them a job abroad.

The move was lauded by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) as a “positive step” as many migrant workers fall into debt bondage because recruitment fees are astronomically high.

As Angela Sherwood, Amnesty International’s Refugee and Migrants’ Rights researcher, notes “The high-interest loans workers take out to meet the costs of their migration often leaves them with crushing debt which significantly increases the risk of forced labour and other severe labour abuses.”

The Global Construction Review reports:

The Supreme Committee in Doha is negotiating with its contractors in the hope that the rest of the construction workers, expected to reach 30,000 by 2019, can have their fees paid as well as part of a total £3.6m ($5m) payout.

Up until now, the payments are only reimbursed if the worker can produce receipts, which only happens on a handful of occasions.

Under the reforms, the burden of proof will instead shift onto contractors who will have to pay back workers their recruitment fees unless they can prove they made the payment.